Bayberry Lane fire victim mourns her dogs, plans to rebuild

Robin Wisnewski now lives in a trailer parked next to her blackened 43 Bayberry Lane home.

Her two dogs, killed in a July 3 blaze, have been cremated and await a clean spot on Wisnewski’s future, remodeled mantel.

“They have to gut everything,” Wisnewski said while standing on her front lawn.

She creaked open the warped front door. A stench of burned materials drifted outside.

Despite seemingly endless activity at the scene — insurance adjusters and contractors, in and out of the soot-caked front door — the property seems eerily quiet without Dakota and Snowball’s occasional barks, she said.

“I may get new dogs down the road,” Wisnewski said. “Eventually, but not now. I’m not putting them in a mobile home.”

A bone-shaped sign “Spoiled Rotten Dogs Live Here” still stands in the flowerbed.

“The investigators believe that a three-way ‘gang’ receptacle with two appliances plugged into it was the (cause) of the initial heat source, so the fire is being ruled accidental,” said Taunton Fire Chief Timothy Bradshaw.

Wisnewski left for work just minutes before the fire started. She rushed to the scene from her job after friends called.

She remembers the receptacle that sparked the blaze and has tried to recall the pair of appliances she had plugged into that power source. It might have been a coffee maker and a stick blender.

Luckily, Wisnewski’s insurance policy was thorough and up-to-date. She said it might be six months to a year before she can vacate the trailer and move back into her house.

Until then, she’ll carefully consider whether to adopt new roommates.

“I’ll be doing some research on animals that need rescuing,” she said while behind the shell of her former home, a large black burn mark on the rear siding at the spot where fire investigators determined the blaze originated. “I’ll look around until I see one I fall in love with.”

Since the fire, members of the community have written with offers of support.

Wisnewski broke down in her driveway on July 3 when informed her animals had died in the fire. The property loss quickly became secondary.

“I can replace furniture,” she said. “I can replace dishes. But my pets … you can’t replace them. It devastated me to think that they were trapped in there. Supposedly they’re up in heaven now.”

She managed a slight smile and stepped over the utility hookups on her way to the front door of her temporary home.